Stout Braggot Recipe

[IJesusChrist]

After my last 5 gallons was soaking into my garage floor (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/glass-carboy-breaks-5-gallons-gone-464269/) I immediately said its time to get to work on the #2 of the year. I am totally uneducated in beer making, different malts, yeasts, and grains. So I threw together what I thought might turn out good, depending on what smells and tastes I like.

4.5-4.75 gallons
6# Dark DME
.5# Roasted Barley (60 mins@ 160F)
.5# Chocolate (60 mins @ 160)
.5# 60L (60 mins @ 160)
1.5oz Magnum (12AA) hops (60 mins @ 160)
Yeast nutrient + energizer (About 2 tsp of each at OG, 2/3 OG and 1/3 OG)
Honey (dutch gold "organic" wildflower from brazil) added to a OG of >1.085

Apparenly some of my DME hadn't dissolved fully on the first OG (of 1.080) and the next day actually was found to be higher, so not totally sure the OG, but this will definitely be >10% ABV.

Its only been a few days, and the SG is at 1.015, day 4.5.

The smell is very roasted, dried. Not much sweet aroma, which isn't what I was going for, but hopefully will be ok. I am thinking of adding a single vanilla bean, and depending on the taste, the slightest bit of mint.

Any suggestions for a braggot, stout, mead amateur at this point?

 

[Irish1225]

Those hops will contribute a healthy amount of IBU's. Although, it might balance very well with the roasty/dark malts.

And throw a couple more vanilla beans in there, you might not notice just the one. When I've used vanilla, I will chop it into .25-.5 inch segments and soak it in bourbon for a day or two. Then just dump the whole thing in there.

 

[IJesusChrist]

I didn't boil the hops, so I don't think the IBUs will be all that overwhelming, actually. (At least I hope, not a fan of bitter.)

Thanks, I'll definitely chop the beans up before hand.

 

[corwin3083]

When you say...

".5# Roasted Barley (60 mins@ 160F)
.5# Chocolate (60 mins @ 160)
.5# 60L (60 mins @ 160)
1.5oz Magnum (12AA) hops (60 mins @ 160)"

...does that mean that you boiled both the grains and the hops for 60 minutes, or that you steeped both the grains and the hops for 60 minutes? Because in the first case you'd probably get a lot of tannin extraction from the roasted grains, which would be bad. In the second case, you just won't get anything out of the hops, since they need to be boiled to produce bitterness.

 

[Irish1225]

I didn't notice the temps there; you shouldn't get any bitterness from the hops because boiling temps are needed to isomerize the acids.

I think it looks pretty darn good! And 60 minutes at 160* should kill off any baddies in the malts or hops.

 

[IJesusChrist]

Horray!

 

[IJesusChrist]

I tasted this yesterday, SG =1.025, 6 days old.

It is SEVERLY roasted / toasted flavor. Its like eating roasted barley covered (poorly) in honey.

I'm hopping whirfloc will settle out the sediment, and make a great fix, but otherwise, if this doesn't go away, I'm screwed!

 

[corwin3083]

I tasted this yesterday, SG =1.025, 6 days old.

It is SEVERLY roasted / toasted flavor. Its like eating roasted barley covered (poorly) in honey.

I'm hopping whirfloc will settle out the sediment, and make a great fix, but otherwise, if this doesn't go away, I'm screwed!

Don't dump it! IME, meads, and braggots in particular, need to age, as age somehow causes the honey flavors to reappear. If you let this sit in bottles for a year or two, you just might find that the honey flavor suddenly pops back into existence and starts balancing the roasty flavors.

 

[IJesusChrist]

Yeah, I'm definitely letting it age, I took some out and let it sit in a glass for a while and mmm was getting better by the minute.